SKU: HL.49029895

ISBN 9780901938572. 4.5x6.5x0.115 inches. English. Roland King.

For the past twelve years, Ronald King has been providing a series of cartoons for the 'Recorder and Music' magazine, modestly hiding behind the initials RK. This collection, taken from past issues is designed to help prevent recorder players taking themselves too seriously.(Edgar Hunt, 1976).

SKU: HL.49002680

ISBN 9780901938039. English.

Ballet an its Music traces the influence of the outstanding personalities in the world of ballet from the seventeenth century to the present day. The development of dance-technique and ballet music is followed from the courtly and peasant dances of the High Renaissance through to contemporary productions. The author deals in detail not only with the great choreographers, past and present, but also with the composers whose names are especially linked with ballet and who have made a significant contribution to music for the dance. She combines a historical narrative with a perceptive treatment of world-famous Schools and Companies. Ballet and its Music is copiously illustrated with photographs and engravings. A special feature of the book is the collection of music extracts from many famous ballets, arranged for piano solo, which will make it particularly attractive to the student an amateur musician. Althrough primarily intended for young people embarking on a study of ballet, the wealth of information contained in this book will make it a stimulating and invaluable guide for readers of all ages.

SKU: ST.C463

ISBN 9790570814633.

This volume contains contrasting works by Federico Ruiz spanning quite a large and rich period of his compositional output that goes from his early Micro-Suite (1971), to lilting, sweet and rhythmic Venezuelan waltzes passing by the mysterious, intimate, and intense Nocturno (1994) plus pieces originally composed for film, and theatre. Real eclecticism in styles, moods and atmospheres that show Ruizâ??s talents and scope.

The Nocturno is a deep, intriguing, substantial piece presenting a satisfying length which moves from different paths of the mind and the heart written in an abstract, chromatic idiom, that does not dissociate itself from the Venezuelan waltz and the joropo. One could perhaps say that there is a deconstruction of the latter. For the interpretation, the composer has suggested to me that it is allowed to have some flexibility in the tempo. Ruiz kindly dedicated it to me, and I have had the pleasure of performing it in many concerts.

Although all highly expressive, the Three Venezuelan Waltzes present in this collection as well as the piece titled Aliseo, are works that are close to the colourful Venezuelan folk tradition. Federico Ruiz had given me two of them when we first met: â??Tu Presenciaâ?? (1981) and â??Eloísaâ?? (1989) and then I attended a performance of the play â??Office Number Oneâ?? by Miguel Otero Silva with a fantastic actor, Elba Escobar in the role of Carmen Rosa and, I just fell in love and was very moved by the incidental music that I later discovered, by reading the programme, had been written by Federico Ruiz. Later that evening, I called him and asked to please make a piano score of the composition, so I could have the desired piece in my hands. That is how â??Carmen Rosaâ? waltz (1987) came to exist in a piano version.

â??Eloisaâ?? is another Venezuelan waltz with more jazzy harmonies where precision in the rhythm and elegant playing is also essential, as it is in most of his pieces.

â??Tu Presenciaâ?? was dedicated to his mother, Margarita. It is written with the structure of the Venezuelan waltz, which consists of a nostalgic subject that leads to a faster, happier middle section where the typical graceful rhythm is given by the left-hand accompaniment figure of a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver and a crotchet.

The craft and magic found in the five movements of the Micro-Suite is based on a dodecaphonic row by Ernst Krenek. They remind us of the idiom of the Second Viennese School. These real miniatures seem to tell short stories. The â??Preludioâ?? is full of humour. I imagine dancing figures given by the jumps all over the keyboard and extreme dynamics; the phrases give the impression of a conversation with many questions and answers. The â??Invenciónâ?? is a kaleidoscopic piece where the hands mirror each other. The â??Passacagliaâ?? is the longest movement, at just over a minute where the prime motif is repeated three times on the bass line. For its construction Federico Ruiz uses as well the retrograde and the retrograde inversion of the twelve-tone series. It must be played expressively with dynamic contrasts between pianissimo and louder events. The â??Scherzoâ?? has repetitive motifs of a minor third in both hands and the â??Finalâ?? displays virtuosic passages for the pianist.

Aliseo was originally written for the film â??Aire libreâ? (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the character of Aliseo Carvallo is played by the composer himself who performs this piece on a harpsichord to welcome scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland one day at the turn of the 1800â??s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. It presents the refinement of the late European classical era in fusion with Venezuelan folk music.

SKU: FG.55011-538-5

ISBN 9790550115385.

The air is heavy with flashy comments, when the flute, the bassoon and the piano start their debate in Storm in a Teacup (2014) by Kirmo Lintinen (b. 1967). Only 4'30'' of length, this virtuosic trio finds the piece after the grand rampage. Kirmo Lintinen is a man of many musical talents: composer, pianist and conductor. His catalogue encompasses almost all genres and categories of composition, from solo work to opera, and he operates with ease from one to another without being a crossover artist; in his case, the versatility is both internalised and innate. He often finds inspiration in French music of the 1920s and its intrinsic musicality. Humour and playfulness are characteristic elements of his music, as are a natural, musicianly approach and an enchantingly effervescent, even tongue-in-cheek texture.